Marissa Flores
THE Commonwealth Casino Commission has failed the people of the Commonwealth, Rep. Marissa Flores said on Tuesday.
In his remarks during the miscellaneous part of the House session, Flores also said that she did not disrespect CCC Chairman Edward C. Deleon Guerrero when they had a heated exchange of words during a budget hearing last week.
But she accused Deleon Guerrero of “not doing justice to help the people of the Commonwealth.”
She said everybody in the CNMI would have “enjoyed the millions of dollars” that the exclusive casino license holder, the Imperial Pacific International, owes the government, had he, Deleon Guerrero, performed his fiduciary responsibility.
She said Deleon Guerrero also “insulted” her for not taking classes in criminal justice. “What I do know is fairness, what I do understand is accountability, what I do know is transparency. And if he and I would sit down once again I would have to say we would disagree on many things.”
“So I’m pretty sure, Mr. Chairman Deleon Guerrero, if you are watching [on YouTube] and with all due respect sir, I did not disrespect you in anyway shape or form. But I do have an opinion on how you lead a commission,” Flores said.
She added that “the courts have no dockets that are pending between IPI and the revocation. So he could have acted and the members of the commission could have acted on the revocation of the license. But they didn’t. And their failure to do that has placed us in this situation,” Flores said.
During the budget hearing conducted by the House Ways and Means committee last week, Deleon Guerrero said CCC successfully took IPI to court for its failure to pay the $3.15 million in annual regulatory fee due to the commission since 2020.
CCC’s executive director, Andrew Yeom, has also asked the commission to revoke IPI’s exclusive casino license. The revocation process, however, has been on hold following IPI’s filing of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in federal court.
